l
that I abhor, or he may be a celebrated champion of my favourite
opinions. It is evident that these particulars must dictate the
treatment you receive from me, and make me either your friend or enemy:
your patron or your persecutor. Besides, I am anxious for some personal
knowledge of you that I may judge of your literary merits. You may
possibly be one of these, who came hither from the old world to seek
your fortune; who have handled the pen as others handle the awl or
needle; that is, for the sake of a livelihood, and who, therefore, are
willing to work on any kind of cloth or leather, and to any model that
may be in demand. You may, in the course of your trade, have
accommodated yourself to twenty different fashions, and have served
twenty classes of customers; have copied at one time a Parisian, at
another a London fashion, and have truckled to the humours, now of a
precise enthusiast, and now of a smart free-thinker.

"''Tis of no manner of importance what creed you may publicly profess
on this occasion, or on what side, religious or political, you may
declare yourself enlisted. To judge of the value or sincerity of these
professions, to form some notion how far you will faithfully or
skilfully perform your part, I must know your character. By that
knowledge, I shall regulate myself with more certainty than by any
anonymous declaration you may think proper to make.'

"I bow to the reasonableness of these observations, and shall therefore
take no pains to conceal my name. Anybody may know it who chooses to ask
me or my publisher. I shall not, however, put it at the bottom of this
address. My diffidence, as my friends would call it, and my discretion,
as my enemies, if I have any, would term it, hinders me from calling out
my name in a crowd. It has heretofore hindered me from making my
appearance there, when impelled by the strongest of human
considerations, and produces, at this time, an insuperable aversion to
naming myself to my readers. The mere act of calling out my own name, on
this occasion, is of no moment, since an author or editor who takes no
pains to conceal himself, cannot fail of being known to as many as
desire to know him. And whether my notoriety make for me or against me,
I shall use no means to prevent it.

"I am far from wishing, however, that my readers should judge of my
exertions by my former ones. I have written much, but take much blame to
myself for something which I have written, and